Monday, July 25, 2011

I don't want to live in a world without peaches. Really. And I only like canned peaches pureed into Bellini Soup (is there such a thing?) or on top of cottage cheese for lunch in the winter if I'm just desperate and out of time and am feeling tres fat. And while, "Sorry don't get it done, Dude," is one of the more famous John Wayne quotes, I often remember him in front of a campfire, "Open me up a can of those peaches." Poor cowboys. They didn't have fresh peaches. Just cooked, peeled, old canned things.

In St. Paul, we've had peaches from several places for a few weeks. And some of them have been glorious. We're still waiting for Colorado western-slope, but that's as it should be. Having lived in Colorado for years, I'm not addicted to those peaches. In fact, I like peaches from other states better. (These are fighting words, I know. Sorry, Colorado.) There's just not enough rain in Colorado for fruit trees. Around Penrose, (south of Colorado Springs) there are some apple orchards that nearly bite the dust every few years despite large-scale irrigation.

Here are some of my favorite ways with peaches:

Unadorned and sweetly loved

Into a salsa for fish or pork or chicken or as a salad all alone with avocado

Here's the salsa served with a grilled pork chop and my mustard tarragon green bean salad.

This year, I've been baking in the wee, small hours of the morning. (Don't you love that song?) It's the only way to get something in and out of the oven without adding to the heat index. I tried Peaches, Cream, and Cake in two varieties, taking each to friends' houses for dinner. I can always be counted on to bring dessert. Besides, it transports easily.

First off was Peach Shortcake and I recommend it highly if only because the shortcakes bake quickly and you could even do them in a counter top oven should you be blessed enough to have one. I am not. Second was Elvis Presley's Favorite Cake with Peaches and (homemade) Ginger Ice Cream. For some reason (not wanting to appear the forever blogger at dinner)--I only have a pic of the cake. But you'll get the idea.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

I know. This sounds like something off a froofroo menu, right? I couldn't think of another name for it that said what it was. When you're naming a recipe, it must

catch the ear

catch the eye

represent the dish accurately in a thrice (or right away, you might say)

not be too long (ha)

end up in the right place in the index (or..today on google)

Of those things, the most important one for me is that you know what you're making just by the name. There's no sense being halfway through making something and saying, "Geez, this is full of walnuts!" with your jaw dropped. On the other hand, I'm sometimes taken in by coy, cute, or gimmicky recipe titles like

Funny Bones

Babysitter's Spaghetti Casserole (You can google either of the first two; they're real.)

Chocolate Nut Heavens (This one being my own; I held a contest for the name on fb.)

If you see "Chicken and Potatoes," you know what you're getting. If you see "Mystery Soup," in the index, it' a mystery. (Heat, mixing well, 2 cans beef broth and 1 8 oz package cream cheese. --That's the entire recipe from THE EASTERN JUNIOR LEAGUE COOKBOOK.)

To some of us (who grew up in the mid west, for example) Quahog Chowder sounds like something out of Star Trek. We didn't know from clams. We probably weren't picking that name out of the index.

Two friends this week kindly invited us to a potluck for a group that typically meets once a month to try a new restaurant. Somehow, backyards, mosquitoes, and vegetable gardens beckoned an outdoor summer gathering and a homemade potluck was the July event. Because summer fruit is coming on and I love a reason to fix a big dessert, I brought (more than a) pound cake with sliced fresh peaches and homemade ginger ice cream. (Ok, come over; I'll make it for you, too.) The cake, I kid you not, was called "Elvis Presley's Favorite Cake." Would you have jumped to the conclusion that this was a regular old, if delish and huge, pound cake?

Elvis Presley's Favorite Cake

The recipe's on epicurious.com, and probably in other places as well. And if your berries are in, get up early and make this baby. Invite the neighbors; it'll serve 12-14.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Pagliacci's New York Cheesecake--Made and photographed this year in St. Paul

I don't double blog. Or if I do, I do it rarely.

This cake, however, belongs on both blogs. I've made it for Dave's birthday since l984 and for lots of other occasions since. In different reincarnations. Chocolate, pumpkin, toffee, cranberry compote. You get the idea.

For some reason, the recipe ended up on the Dinner Place blog. Forgive me. So if you need the recipe, go here:

moretimeatthetable.blogspot.com

NEW BOOK!

No Kid Hungry

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Favorite Quotes

Among virtually every culture on Earth, anything worth doing is best done over dinner. Bring out a nicely braised roast, a hot loaf of bread, and a slice of lemon pie, and rifts can be healed, pacts sealed, loves revealed. Even the condemned do not want to leave the world without one last supper. --Natalie Angier

New York Times, November, 2000.

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike." ~ John Muir

“I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.”E.B. White

"We sing because we can."(John Bell)"And remember, anyone can cook" Auguste Gusteau."No one grows old at the table." (Italian proverb)"A fruit is a vegetable with looks and money. Plus, if you let fruit rot, it turns into wine, something Brussels sprouts never do."-PJ O'Rourke."Where there is cake, there is hope. And there is always cake." - Dean Koontz... plus..."Once, if I remember well, my life was a feast where all hearts opened and all wines flowed."-- Arthur Rimbaud.

When people were hungry, Jesus didn’t say, 'Now, is that political or social?' He said, 'I feed you.' Because the good news to a hungry person is bread." --Desmond Tutu"People who love to eat are always the BEST people."Julia Child.“I thought such awful thoughts that I cannot even say them out loud, because they would make Jesus want to drink gin straight out of the cat dish.” --Anne Lamott.

It seems that all my bridges have been burntBut you say that's exactly how this grace thing works.It's not the long walk home that will change this heartBut the welcome I receive with every start

-Roll Away Your Stone, Mumford & Sons

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant. --Robert Louis Stevenson

If we have no peace, it's because we have forgotten that we belong to one another. --Mother Teresa

Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. -Lewis Carroll, ALICE IN WONDERLAND

Psalm 96:1

Oh sing to the Lord a new song.

..

"I do not understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us." Anne Lamott

About Me

Church choir director, writer, avid home cook, recipe tester, and teacher, I'm married to the love of my life, the mom of great adult children, grandma to one adorable boy, and the owner of one spoiled golden retriever. Most of the time, I live right in Colorado Springs, but I also love in St. Paul, Minnesota (home of the best farmer's market in the United States) I support World Food Programme in the fight against world hunger.